This Flash-based interactive provides access to illustrations, visualizations, videos, and near-real time images of the Sun from a variety of NASA satellites. Learners can access this information to supplement other materials related to the Sun and...(View More) heliophysics. A scale tool with the size of the Earth is also presented with the solar images.(View Less)

This activity is an interactive word find game with words related to comets and NASA's Comet Nucleus Sample Return mission. Accompanying text and pictures describe what comets are and why we are interested in them.

In this lesson, learners will construct their own 3-D glasses in order to use them on 3-D images, such as images of the Sun from the STEREO spacecraft. This activity requires special materials, such as red and blue acetate paper and can be used with...(View More) an accompanying activity, titled Create Your Own 3-D Images.(View Less)

This is an activity about how the Sun can affect the Earth's atmosphere, specifically the ionosphere. Learners will use real data from a Sudden Ionosphere Disturbance Monitor, or SID Monitor, to identify the signatures in the graphed data that can...(View More) be used to determine the times of sunrise and sunset. Although the SID monitors are designed to detect SIDs caused by solar flares, they also detect the normal influence of solar X-rays and UV light during the day as well as cosmic rays at nighttime. There is a distinct shape to a 24-hour SID data graph, with unique shapes, or signatures, of the graph appearing at sunrise and sunset.This activity is part of the Research with Space Weather Monitor Data educators guide. Use of and access to a Stanford Solar Center SID monitor and the internet is encouraged but not required. Locations without a SID monitor can use sample data provided in the educators guide.(View Less)

Learners will explore the concept of parallax (the apparent displacement of an object caused by a change in the viewer's position) and then simulate the discovery of Pluto with a Blink Comparator via an online interactive.

This online, interactive activity challenges students to use image and text-based clues to identify solar system objects. This activity has a game-like format during which students collect cards that depict solar system objects such as planets,...(View More) comets, asteroids, and the sun. Students have to correctly identify the object featured on each card in order to collect the card. Students can work through the activity independently or in groups. Detailed teacher pages, identified as Teaching Tips on the title page of the activity, provide science background information, lesson plan ideas, related resources, and alignment with national education standards. This activity is an online exploration that is available on the Amazing Space website.(View Less)